Most live plants are fragile and require special attention in shipment, storage, and marketing. Live plants must be treated with extreme care, watered regularly, and protected from insects, fungus, and bacteria. The plant must also be protected from handling by potential customers, but at the same time be subject to customer inspection prior to purchase. Because of these requirements, the sale of plants has usually been accomplished through special outlets in which experienced personnel are at hand to care for the plants and to exercise personal control while the plant is being displayed to the customer.
It would be desirable to market live plants directly through super markets and other self-service retail establishments in which special personnel are not available. However, the packages for live plants known heretofore have not been adapted for adequately protecting and displaying the plant under these circumstances. For example, in an early package design shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,988,886, the package wraps around the plant and the roots to provide a moisture-proof seal, thereby eliminating the need for watering, but it does not provide an effective protection for the plant during handling nor is it suitable for display when marketing since it is not upstanding and since it does not provide for inspection of the plant prior to purchase.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,664,670, a rigid package is shown which provides better protection for the plant. However, this package is not designed to be moisture-proof. Holes have to be put in the wrapper for watering the plant. Furthermore, the plant is potted in a heavy pot which is not suitable for plant shipment because it adds weight and cost to the package and because it must be secured within the package to prevent damage to the plant if the package is tipped over. The pot may also be unwanted by the potential purchaser who intends to transplant his purchase. The rigid design is also less desirable than a flexible design which is better adapted to packing during shipment and storage and which affords better protection to the plant.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,774,187 and 2,994,424 packages have been designed for the shipment and storage of cut flowers. Both of these patents employ sealed transparent containers which maintain the cut flowers in a moisture controlled environment. These containers, however, are intended to be used when the flowers are given special fragile treatment and are not designed to protect the flowers against rough handling normally experienced during shipment. These packages are also not adaptable for use with live plants since no provision is made for the plant roots and soil. Furthermore, these packages have an irregular baggy shapes, making packing difficult.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,320,697 a similar bag-like wrapping is used around a potted plant. This design is also not adapted for packing and shipment because it has an irregular shape which does not facilitate the placement of plurality of such containers in a shipping container and because there is no protection to the plant or to the soil and roots if the package is knocked over during shipment and handling. This design has a heavy expensive pot which is unsuitable for shipment.